Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 14-15)

Mostly over my COVID but still quarantining as it’s still less than two weeks since I first got it.

I’ll be playing Halo Infinite this weekend because I’m trying to get from Gold to Platinum in career rank before season 5. Still a long way of Hero and the Master Chief armor kit but it’s progress nonetheless.

Other than that I’ll have one eye on the Halo Championship Series world finals held in Seattle. Exciting times and some nice twitch drops too.

RE 4 Separate Ways still for me. I want Ada to have that Infinite Launcher. Lol. Takes a few playthroughs for that. Other than that, MW3 beta and Silent Hill 2.

Prolly give redfall another try, see if there's anyone in LFG who's tryna vibe with some vamps.
I already recouped my losses from buying the overpriced kmt in fm so got no reason to play that.

I think I got all I could out of Forza in my 5 or so hours. I'm moving on for now but leaving it installed on my pc in case a racing urge returns.

Xbox - dark pictures the devil in me, starfield
Playstation - death stranding
Nintendo - new super Mario bros (3ds)
Pc - dead island 1

This weekend I’m still playing Cyberpunk 2077. Last week, I praised this game immensely and my thoughts have only grown fonder, so much so I put it in my top 10 of all time. I’m near the end of the base game, and I’m trying to finish up all of the “romance” questlines that I can before I head into Dog Town.

My goal is to beat and platinum Cyberpunk before Spider-Man 2 releases. Unfortunately, I’m having issues unlocking a couple of trophies. First is “Two Heads, One Bullet” - my sniper rifle refuses to kill two people at once despite having a high tier 5+ rifle. The other, although it can be multiple, is finishing all gigs and NCPD missions in a district. Hopefully, this isn’t a bug or, if it is, it gets patched relatively soon.

When I’m not gaming, I’m getting back into reading — a hobby that I’ve sadly put on the wayside for too long. A coworker suggested I start reading books set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I started with The Horus Heresy - Horus Rising. So far, it’s pretty good, and overwhelming. The lore is fantastic, though. I have a feeling I’ll be getting lost in this world for a long time to come.

I was playing and really enjoying AC: Valhalla, but I have so much stuff going on right now... Don't know if I'll have the time.

I'm playing the Pokémon Violet Teal Mask DLC..

I wanted to play forza but my Xbox won’t connect to the internet, yet my ps5 on the shelf above it and my phone will.

Ordered a signal booster so hopefully that will fix it

Been playing Gotham Knights and Dicey Dungeons when I need a break…don’t have enough space to download Forza atm…

I'm playing Motorsport, Ive put over 30 hours into it playing the career and im only just finishing the second tour.
I'm also still playing Starfield. Its not gonna last me forever but I reckon I can squeeze another 100 hours 😊

Here we go.
Re loaded Redfall and what a difference 60fps and better control and few more updates.
played for about an hour before update first time as the fps movement and 30fps got to me, but now me very happy.
A bit of Starfield and might start Forza
And maybe a bit of RE4 remake.

Still finalising my first Baldur's Gate 3 run on my PC. I thought I might just finish it this week, but circumstances prevented me from doing so, however I hope to complete it next week.

No doubt about it, BG3 will win every single award that it is nominated for. Such a fantastic game. Almost a once in a lifetime sort of game...

@Titntin
How does Forza career mode work have not started yet and down loading it now 😊
Glad you enjoying.

A bit of a race fest - chopping and changing between Forza Horizon 4&5, Forza Motorsport and Grid Legends, all excellent in their own way.

A bit of Cocoon head scratching until my brain explodes, maybe a bit of AoE4 and I need to play more of Redfall now it has been patched & 60fps.

Very glad we didn’t get an ABK drop of games just to confuse me even more!

Have a good w/end everyone.

Just finished Starfield, loved the ending, will go back when there is DLC. Started up Everspace 2, and more Darktide with the boys - and maybe a little Remnant 2.

Still racing in Forza Motorsport.

Have done some multiplayer races which have been a mixed bag. As I expected chaos & carnage at times other time really clean racing which are more fun for me.

I have kept my S rank safety rating so far and am hovering around 3500 is driver rating. So this give me a solid platform to work from & improve going forward.

I hope Turn 10 start to make use of all the race option & add some more interesting races though. Longer races, multiclass and other stuff are all options in free play so it would be nice to see those come to multiplayer at some point. Still early days but has been fun so far.

Xbox Series X - Starfield, Forza Motorsport

PS5 - Assassin's Creed: Mirage

I can tell you what I wont be playing - Forza Motorsport.
I am not paying £69.99 for a new game, but that's another story.

Playing quite a lot of Forza Motorsport right now. I’ve been mixing it up between career races and online. Glad to say I still have a S safety rating 🙂 I always find it quite funny when another (online) racer barges past me, but you can see in the top left corner what penalties they’ve accumulated, and always gives me a wry smile when even though they’re in front of me on track, they finish behind me because of penalties 😂
Also playing Cyberpunk 2077 / Phantom liberty. Really enjoying it, just a shame that even after 2.01 update the Series X still struggles in some areas of Dogtown. Saying that, the lighting in this game is phenomenal, especially in building interiors.

Starfield ,I was about to drop it when all of the sudden I played a really good side quest. I need to level up my pilot skills for a main mission
Also gotham knights which is quite good in my opinion. Doesnt bring anything to the table but it's ok

@Nightcrawler71 when you are behind someone with 5+ seconds of penalties on the last lap. They drive super aggressive like they expect you to try to pass them when all I have to do is stay within those 5+ second to beat them on the line.

Not sure what some folks are thinking at times lol

Lies of P mostly. Just hit act 5. Great game.

@BBB The game seems to be really pushing clean racing which doesn't vibe with my rubbing is racing philosophy. It's fine, I also enjoy the challenge of keeping it completely clean but it is annoying to get a 1 segment score when the computer crashed into me.

Resident Evil 2 (Nintendo 64) - I play this every Halloween and I haven't missed a year yet!

Doodle God Blitz (Windows Phone) - Decent time killer so far...

Had a few shots and Forza. It's a fantastic looking game and gives a good driving 'feel'. Only had 2 crashes back to home screen but didn't lose any progress. I want to buy eafc but the same errors from the previous 2 games still exist in career mode, "you've not made the greatest start, can you turn things around?" after winning 8 out of 8 games. It really does destroy immersion. It tells me it's not a new game, mainly a 2 year old game getting it's 2nd coat of shiny paint.

@RBRTMNZ well motor racing in general is a non contact sport. Perhaps Turn 10 will let the AI know that eventually 😉

Forza motorsport for me, and dipping in and out of riders republic.

Happy gaming everyone 👍👍

@BBB I would argue that stock car racing, or at least NASCAR, which I grew up watching, is very much a contact sport. But this is just a different challenge and that’s fine.

I wish I could at least use a classic NASCAR technique of drafting into the car in front of me and pushing them forward so we could chase down the lead car, without being penalized CP, since Forza games always seem to handle difficulty by just making the first place car drive away from the pack so that when you clear the field they have an impossible to close lead.

@BBB

I'm enjoying it so far, managed to setup my wheel just right for Forza Motorsport.

I have complained about the non-stop waiting in Multiplayer to just have a few laps of race time. I would've preferred the FM6/FM7 just jump straight into a R class but instead have to wait and be forced with a class.

I tried out the new Forza Motorsport and deleted it already. Back to playing Forza Horizon 5 and Starfield.

@ParsnipHero I'm glad you're getting better it's no joke thats for sure

@Dan1283 Sea of stars on xbox and I'm loving it and im enjoying forza as well. ive finished starfield now thank god I won't touch that game till its patched and stable way to much frustration with that. obviously I cant wait for spiderman 2 soon and Mario wonder

AC mirage and forza motorsport, brought stray recently but not played it yet

Haven’t played anything in like 2 weeks; I quit smoking recently and it’s been a battle.

Maybe I’ll play some RE4, or continue my playthrough of BG3

Dying light 2, soma. Luigi’s mansion 3. You can tell by my avatar my favorite time of year

Forza Motorsport and RE8. On switch, I just finished up Heaven Dust II so not sure if I'll start something or wait til Mario Wonder

@Reptilio mine as well!

Heading over the my buddy's house tonight so we can play in person for once, hahaha.. definitely Mario Party Superstars, 2-on-2 NHL Open Ice Challenge, and probably a bunch of arcade beat-em-ups like TMNT, Simpsons, etc.

Possibly more starfield and definitely jumping back into Redfall, would highly recommend trying it after the patch.
Also advancing my settlement in Dawn of Man and probably a few laps or 10 in Forza.
Also, some DD3 on Evercade, Spyro (PS4 pro) and a few levels of Golden Axe or Final Fight 2 on Switch for a pallette cleanse. Have fun all.

Its been another weekend of driving. Levelling up nicely on Forza Motorsport, day of the dead on horizon and grinding disney speedstorm omg how long to level up without pay to play. I forgot how long it took to do anything on asphalt 9. Stopped mirage for a small while but now plugged series s upstairs i will have more options for remote play.
Switch this weekend is lego 2kdrive and ps5 bit of GT 7

Checking out the new Forza but I’m so disappointed. Game crashed twice on my Series X already in three hours, and the AI cars still have that insanely stupid thing that they don’t do anything anymore one you’ve overtaken them.

And then there’s the bizarre online penalties for getting crashed into you.

What a mess.

Starfield. Going to switch from exploring and surveying everything to mainlining the story quests.

@Dan1283 certainly isn’t, mate. Keep safe out there!

@ParsnipHero 👍

The more I play Starfield, the more I want to play Fallout 4 instead w/ limited console mods. The Series Enhanced update can't come fast enough.

I think I am done with Lies of P. I am close to the end but I am getting a bit frustrated so I think it is better to move on. I also bought syberia 3 today for cheap so I started that. I have play the other 2 prior and I enjoyed them but this one (which I already heard is not great) has many issues with graphics style and gameplay in a 3d environment... Regardless with should be a fairly easy run

Not Forza Motorsport as I tried playing it on launch day and lost two races worth of progress with the upgrade car infinite loading bug. I instead played Motorfest to get my racing fix as I had the ultimate edition available with Ubisoft Plus (I bought 1 month for AC Mirage).

Still working on Jedi Survivor and Mars: War Logs on Series X. I've actually been pretty busy adding over 120 games to my collection. I raided the game stores before I moved to a different part of the country and now that I'm in a different part of the country I raided the game stores around here.

@Lightweight the other side of that is you could spend the same time trying to find a hopper that had people in it that actually were racing.

At least in Motorsport you know you are going to get a race and the folks there are going to race you.

As it stands now it's not perfect but for me I find it better than the old hopper system just for it being more consistent.

Curiously, after having tried the new Forza, which didn't really hooked on me, I've begun to play again... Forza 7.

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but everything in this entry seems better, from my point of view, than the new one.

Maybe I'll dig further, another time, but for now, I just want to play Forza Motorsport 7 !

EDIT : Oh, and off course, I keep playing in the Starfield !

@OldGamer999
Its not brilliant imho. A whole tour will be five or six series of races with a set car type. You choose the car from a choice of three stock vehicles and as you complete races get access to few more parts for them. Unfortunately this means that by the time you have enough parts unlocked to really tune the vehicle, you are moving on to the next series of races. You will often unlock parts for a car and not be able to use them at all in the next race due to race regulations. Progression from stock seems slow and unsatisfactory.
However, the actual feel of the car on the road is great, particularly in chase mode and props for making the controller option work as well as it does. The cockpit modes dont really work so well imo and whilst im sure the handling model is the same, it sure doent feel it to me. You have no defense in cockpit view from the stupid AI which will spend at least half the first lap trying to knock you off the track, in chase cam you might see enough to take avoiding action😁
Im determined to finish all the races despite how long it takes, but the whole package feels sterile and souless to me, even if I appreciate the good driving feel. My wife is often playing The crew motorfest on the other tv, and she's whooping it up and laughing in a way this game wont ever make me feel. Its biggest rival feels like a love letter to car culture with an obvious identity and feel, but this game doesnt establish its own identity for me. I suspect the most fun here will come from online multiplayer, a mode I traditionaly dont play, but will definitely try this time as they've been inventive in how they match make. Oops, didn't want to write a mini review, got carried away! Everyone should try it😊

@Dusk_Actual Keep strong mate. I have copd from 35 years of smoking. I stopped after the diagnosis more than 5 years back and really wish Id stopped sooner. Hold strong mate and I promise you it gets easier.

@RBRTMNZ NASCAR has rules against intentional contact & if strictly applied could result in penalties. As you say though the whole rubbing is racing is a thing so incidental contact is usually ignored.

In the UK when I was a kid it was similar with the British Touring Car Series.

Technically any contact could be penalised but tended to be pretty lenient in applying them. So long as everyone remained on track and going in the right direction a bit of pushing & shoving was seen as part of the racing.

Think it's a bit stricter in BTC these days though but you still get a bit of door to door paint swaps.

@Titntin thanks Tin. Every bit of encouragement helps with this. Many people don’t realize it.

Into the Starfield 💫
Who would have thought that? 😉

@Titntin I think I figured out the issue with Forza AI. It seems like the cars just want to be magnetized to the ideal race line and will try to take it even if you're already occupying that space. They constantly force me off the track this way and then I get penalized with a 1 segment slowing the already frustratingly slow car progression.

@BBB That's interesting. I've fallen out of watching racing so I didn't consider that things might be handled differently these days. I think the inability to go door to door is the rub for me. It's weird that trading paint side by side gets penalized, especially during the initial ***** at the start of the race where I will often get sandwiched between two AI each trying to push my off the race line from either side.

@Balta666 I wish I had it in me to quit a tough game. The unrelenting difficulty of Lies of P bosses has sapped some fun out of the game but I'm just going to keep pushing that boulder up the hill. I don't normally have issues with souls games(beat Melania second try) but this game is hard AF for me.

@Titntin
Thank you for the mini review, I’m still downloading as late to the Forza party I’m more a FH chap.
Just started Redfall after the update and what a great game it seems to be now, the update for me makes a difference and the 60fps VRR on making a big smooth difference, I’m only a few hours in, so will see how it goes.

@Dusk_Actual
You can do it and give up, I have tried a couple of times and not been totally successful.
Prove you are better than me and inspire me to crack the habit as well.

@RBRTMNZ I finish most of my games including some hard games (last year dark souls 1-3) but this one I just got bored by it. I find that every boss is too tanky for my taste and on top of that I don't like parry mechanics so I have to dodge A LOT.

Interesting week this week. In terms of games y’all know this the big week. Sonic Superstars, Super Mario Wonder, and Spider-Man 2 of course. Some months don’t even get that good but these all come out in one shot. Pretty insane. As for this week tho another crazy week of being able to cycle out a different game each day. I’ll admit tho I think I’m gonna drop that idea for a couple weeks as there’s definitely some games I wanna knock out easy. Like I’m pretty sure I’ve been sitting on the end of the Sonic Frontiers update for a week now. Once I beat it I could reinstall something like Street Fighter 6. Man I really do genuinely love Street Fighter 6. As for what I’m thinking on playing I did some Detective Pikachu Returns and FFXVI and I might skip the switch later and just focus on beating this Frontiers update. Otherwise I dunno maybe more Rain Code? Got half early shifts and half late shifts this week with the weekend off so I think a gumbo of games is fitting. Ya know just a mixture of like Fire Emblem Engage: Fell Xenologue, Tears of The Kingdom, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Baldur’s Gate 3, maybe some Mortal Kombat 1, trying to beat RE7 and Disney Illusion Island too. Also definitely wanna get the Resident Evil 4 Remakes Seperate Ways DLC in this Halloween season I feel it just fits beautifully. As for anime this week we do have some fall recommendations this week. We got Frieren, Spy X Family, Shangri La Frontier and many many more but honestly their titles are like super long hahahahahaha. Podcasts this week are simple too. Remap Radio, Castle Superbeast, Big Think Dimension, Into the Aether and Giant Bombcast. Have a good weekend everyone and as always Happy Gaming.

Judge Dredd !! from the archives

@Balta666 I think the problem is less that they are tanky and more that the punish windows are almost always only long enough for a single attack. I normally play dex builds but switched to heavy for this because even with a light weapon it’s hard to get more than one hit in so the fights become slogs. I imagine even more so for you as the combat is predicated on staggering bosses via parrying.

@Dusk_Actual Good on you. Keep it up, you got this. First two weeks is the roughest. 5 years free myself. Enjoy the extra money, and soon, better tasting food, and easier breathing.